Lifespans Getting Shorter??

In the piece today about the food pyramid revisions -- and excuse me, but don't they revise that dang thing about every six months? --there's a quote from a guy saying, "If we don't change these trends, our children may be the first generation that cannot look forward to a longer life span than their parents." That would be, according to the article, the statement of Eric Bost, an undersecretary at the Agriculture Department.

This quote would come as a surprise to, among others, Ray Kurzweil, who thinks that our children may literally become immortal. There have been reports that obesity is shortening life spans, but I'll put modern medical technology up against the cheeseburger epidemic any day of the week.

The USDA probably ought to stop giving people the idea that they can achieve nutritional Nirvana by carefully selecting foods from the right part of some pyramid or pie chart, because you know what people do: They eat the entire pyramid and the entire pie chart. (My brother's great line, coming out of restaurant at the Old Faithful Inn, patting his belly: "I'm pretty sure they lost money on me at the buffet.")

The USAD needs to publish a pyramid that just contains four words: STOP BEING A PIG.

We know the name of the substance that is causing the obesity epidemic: "Food."